A TECHNIQUE DRIVEN Blog dedicated to mastery of surface design techniques. First we dye, overdye, paint, stitch, resist, tie, fold, silk screen, stamp, thermofax, batik, bejewel, stretch, shrink, sprinkle, Smooch, fuse, slice, dice, AND then we set it on fire using a variety of heat tools.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Discharging with Decolourant

Yesterday I used some Decolourant to discharge. This is a product that you can paint onto fabric or stamp it on. It really didn't smell too bad, either, which was good since we had a "snowstorm" here in North Carolina, a pretty rare occurrence (2" of snow), and I had to stay in the house and work on this.

This was the Decolourant on a blue cotton fabric, a commercially dyed solid. After stamping on the product, I let it dry, then ironed it using the hottest setting.

The color changes a little, it turned more purplish-blue after ironing.

I also stamped a hand-dyed piece of bright pink, then ironed, and it turned very white. Then a black commercially dyed solid, and it turned kind of a rusty white. Both kind of look like batik.

This product didn't make the fabric stiff like paint does, and wasn't nearly as stinky as bleach.

Another approach to deColourant - let the sun activate it. No worries about harmful vapors! (You may have to wait out the snow to use this method!) I've done it in the winter (in Texas)with good results - but it does take longer than in the summer.

I used steam from my iron and got really good results with decolourant. I also found that it doesn't make the fabric stiff. I was thinking of using paint over the discharge, but I am afraid it would stiffen the fabric.